Prosecution system is puzzling here
I spent 40 years as a prosecutor and defence counsel in Manitoba and then Alberta, with occasional cases in B.C., Saskatchewan, and Ontario. Throughout that period the B.C. system of prosecutions were looked upon by practitioners in those provinces in wonderment, and frankly were often the butt of jokes.
The lenient charges laid and sentences imposed, the unbelievably cumbersome charging procedures, the delay it took in getting a case to trial (shortage of courts, staff, judges, and prosecutors primarily) appeared appalling to we outsiders.
In this vein, B.C. recently decided to decriminalize cases of impaired driving, and deal with it as an administrative matter. It’s certainly more efficient, but police use a breath-measuring instrument always thought too inaccurate to use in a courtroom, and gone is the presumption of innocence, access to counsel or any legitimate possibility of questioning the case against you.
It’s no coincidence that this change means fewer judges, court staff, prosecutors and courtrooms.
This all comes as a result of grossly underfunding the system. In fact that is why we have a catch-and-release system. Don’t blame judges or police, they are just following the law made by both levels of government.
The presumption of release under the Criminal Code comes partially from government repugnance to the cost of housing individuals, even though they should not be released back to the streets.
Funding the justice system isn’t sexy, and the problem runs across all political parties here, but penny-pinching isn’t the answer either. Good governance means paying equal attention to the foundation, the wiring and the plumbing.
Terry Sturgeon
Victoria
Campbell River, help the homeless there
Campbell River council has possibly become overly concerned about safety on Shoppers Row due to the presence of homeless and street people.
Homelessness is part of society, and as cities grow larger, so do the issues of drugs, mental health and poverty. We must be tolerant and sympathetic to homelessness.
If crimes are committed, then we need police enforcement. What should not happen are spot checks on the homeless (which in Campbell River comprise a fair portion of Indigenous people).
To try to relocate people because local businesses don’t like the sight of them nearby is wrong. It is time council learned to live with this aspect of life.
The street people were in the Spirit Square area long before the new residents arrived. The Square appears to be a traditional meeting place for a number of Indigenous people.
The recent attempt to redevelop this area has actually resulted in a shared-use area, between the street people and the new apartment dwellers nearby.
Private security systems should be used to control any bad behaviour on private property. Also a few street people could take a leadership role in seeing their friends and companions are kept safe, and not subjected to similar bad behaviour.
Lastly, the nearby soup kitchen and showers provide the street people with the necessities of life. These facilities need added funding from the city.
Brian Backler
Campbell River
Preferential ballot would help in civic elections
The last civic election in Victoria had a 45 per cent turnout, and everyone elected literally had more than 75 per cent of eligible voters not voting for them. That is not democratic.
Elections in Canada at all levels of government do not require having majority support of eligible voters to get elected. This is one of the main reasons, besides being poor or feeling left out, why so many people do not vote. If the person you vote for does not get elected, your vote is redundant. That is not democratic.
For decades all political parties have given lip service to electoral reform, but none of them have acted on it. Majority governments don’t want it because most of their members would not have been elected otherwise, and opposition parties don’t want it because they want the ability to form a government without majority support. A real Catch-22, and the public pays the price. I’ve been trying to figure out for more than 50 years why the public puts up with such a quasi-democratic system.
All of this can easily change by starting with a preferential ballot, which is easiest to introduce at the civic level. People are more likely to vote if they knew they had some say, and with a preferential ballot at least your second or even third choice can get elected.
So after this election and for the next four years, the endless complaints about politicians will again dominate the news. Those in political office will do what they want because they think they are leaders and share views with a small portion of the electorate.
Democracy should be about consensus and co-operation and should not be just adversarial gamesmanship. I do not want leaders, I want representatives, the way it was supposed to be.
Ivan Olynyk
Victoria
Gulf Islands group has little support
Re: “Election an existential moment for the Gulf Islands,” commentary, Oct. 5.
The commentary by Frants Attorp is filled with conjectures that are far from the truth. He is one of the organizers of the Friends of Gulf Islands (FOGI) but he and his group of activists are no friends to Gulf Islands communities.
This group is less than one per cent of the Gulf Island population, yet they state that they are the voice of the Gulf Islands. They seem to oppose virtually anything and stir the pot in communities with innuendos and rumours.
They shout “rampant development” continually but are unable to list five good examples. Their viewpoint is so narrow that they exclude anyone else’s views and they bully those who don’t share their narrow perspective.
Frants misrepresents the Governance Report to be about population ecology, when in truth it is about the governance of how the Islands Trust operates.
Affordable housing, which is almost non-existent on many of the Gulf Islands, and has heartbreakingly driven long-time community members out of their communities, has been opposed by their group.
On Galiano Island after many, many years of jumping through the hoops and doing due diligence, the Local Trust Committee, with widespread support from the Galiano residents, passed a bylaw allowing a small affordable housing project to be built.
Guess who opposed it? Members of FOGI, of course.
FOGI is out of touch and, in my opinion, a zealotish extremist group that unfortunately seems to have no heart for the humans who reside in our Gulf Island communities.
Carol Money
Duncan
Eby’s grand plans and civic democracy
Our upcoming non-elected premier, David Eby, has revealed his vision of a missing middle housing plan for our city (and the entire province) after months of contentious local debate and a decision to be made by the new city council.
Eby appealed the B.C. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Beacon Hill Trust to not allow camping in Beacon Hill Park (with the intention of provincial control over what happens in our city park).
I have to wonder, with great concern, what’s the point of voting when our premier is dictating these major decisions for Victoria that should be left to the residents and newly elected council of our city to decide upon?
These are huge, controversial issues that are top of mind for the voters of our city. So I have to ask … what’s happening to our civic democracy, David Eby?
Coletta Rese
Victoria
Do they have what it takes to run a civic enterprise?
In a few days, we are going to hire a CEO of a multimillion-dollar enterprise. Have we been given a full resumé? Have we found out what qualifications are held by the candidates?
Do they have the education necessary to understand the demands of the job? Does their work history give them the skills so that they can acquit themselves well?
There are many candidates applying for this position. You are the employer. You are the financier of this organization. You have the right to demand that those applying to become the mayor and council of this huge enterprise are qualified and able to act capably.
Everyone voting must do their homework and make sure that their elected representatives are the best and the brightest. These people are about to become the board and leader who are spending our money. Please do your research and vote sensibly.
Dorothy Whittome
Duncan
Spare us the hollow words and help Ukraine
I am tired of the hollow self-promoting pronouncements from our federal ministers, and prime minister, about “standing with Ukraine” and “being there” for them’? Again, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly repeated the meaningless, hollow “We stand with Ukraine” mantra regarding Vladimir Putin’s recent missile strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine. Isn’t it time to back up words with actions — and actually fulfil our promises?
Yes, Canada has provided training and humanitarian aid, which is not insignificant, and which is obviously appreciated by Ukraine. However, with Putin “annexing” parts of Ukraine, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of reinforcements, uttering nuclear threats and targeting civilian targets, it is weaponry — not hollow words — that is urgently needed and being asked for by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Thus far Canada’s military commitment to Ukraine, a democratic nation fighting to exist, has been minimal — just over $600 million — much less than what Trudeau promised the WE Charity — for a program that no one asked for, and no one needed. And, despite ad nauseam announcements of support, has Canada even sent its full commitment yet to Ukraine? No.
Yet Canada allows a pariah regime, which has committed documented war crimes and targeted innocent civilians, including women and children, to retain its diplomats (a.k.a. spies) on Canadian soil.
Isn’t it well past time for Canada to fully support Ukraine militarily — or to just shut up, and spare us, and the people of Ukraine, banal, hollow words?
Gordon Zawaski
Parksville
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